* Ali, my cousin-in-law, whose baby was born with a sixth finger on one hand, and the stub of a sixth finger on the other. Ali and her husband found these extra digits magical and fortuitous, and people in grocery store lines and such would tell her stories of how it was a good omen for their baby. However, doctors soon encouraged them to cut the extra stubs off, saying they might just be in the way later. When I told Ali about the articles we've been reading on Apotemnophilia, she wondered what affect all this has had on little Lucca's infant sense of self. Is it better for the baby to fit in or feel distinguished? Will he miss that extra pinky someday? Or have an unusual urge to lose more fingers?
* The students I worked in the high school all had been labelled throughout their educational career, otherwise they would not have been in our classroom. Ours was a "level 3" setting, which meant the last stop before they would be placed in a "setting" outside the regular school. Invariably, these students had not only the "disorders" that classified them as EBD, but also difficult home situations. So, if we accept that their disorders do have a bio-chemical component, it seems that there also was a "nurture" factor that separated them out from "mainstream" students even further. Many of them also did not live with their biological parents (but with other relatives), as their parents often had similar mental health issues that interfered with their ability to parent. . . . There are layers upon layers with these kids:
--if they had meds, did they take them, did they have family support to remind them to take them, did they ever have any emotional support in addition to the chemical support of the drugs, if the chemical balance is created with medications, can that override any negative effects of the home environment (verbal, physical abuse, etc.)
--if they are labelled as Special Ed./EBD, etc. and seperated from the mainstream setting, what does that do to their sense of self? the pathways in their brain? their social relations?
--was/could their behavior be modified (temporarily or permanently) by the behaviorist practices set up bt the the teacher in the classroom? This question intrigues me as we would have trainings based in "brain science" that were brought to us as being very conclusive.
* Yoga Moms: On another end of some spectrum of parenting are the moms at the prenatal yoga center, who are all very conscious of making "good" decisions for their developing babies, their new infants, their toddler, etc. Chemicals in food, diapers, toys are all worried about, information on how to care for an infant, how to interact, how much time baby spends on his/her stomach versus the back etc., are of interest to most of these moms. How much of it will affect their child's future? And if the kid doesn't like his/her future, to what extent can he blame his mom? If they truly are blank slates, well, heck that is a TON of pressure on these women (who are totally sleep-deprived to begin with. . . ) (and of course dads and other family members, society, etc.)
Maybe Pinker provides a somewhat "easy" answer of not worrying to much about trying to control behavioral factors. Maybe Lewontin would say that the school creates barriers to keep the unusual kids down, and doctors create conditions to keep the odd fingers away, and the moms seek information to increase their child's societal status?
I've been reading Brave New World this weekend, because somehow I never read it before, and it brings up so many questions of happiness, what makes people happy. Is it to medicate our cares away? To surgically remove our flaws and unwanted parts? To just, finally, be like everyone else? To do our task with ease instead of struggle? To know exactly what the teacher wants us to do, when and how, and do it without acting out? To always have things that smell good, feel good and taste good? Uniformity, Skill, Optimization. . . are these the goals? of science? parenting? education?. . .
And to close, I've seen from heart-wrenching personal experience that even when a parent has all the information and gives love and support and material resources to a child, things can still end up in terrible places. Can science help us with that?
--julie
"if they are labelled as Special Ed./EBD, etc. and seperated from the mainstream setting, what does that do to their sense of self? the pathways in their brain? their social relations?"
ReplyDeleteI took some child psychology classes a few years ago and this topic was discussed often. There are many different approaches to special ed as far as how separated/integrated these children are from the "mainstream" classrooms. Social relations/skills are a big concern for these students, especially those with autism spectrum disorders, and having separate classrooms obviously does not help them in this area. In addition, there are many parents who are afraid of their children being labeled and treated differently and avoid having their kids tested for disorders, even when there is clearly a problem.